City of Cottonwood Fire Department Wins Governor’s

Excellence Award for Youth Leadership Development

Arizona Department of Commerce Director Jan Lesher presents the Governor’s Excellence Award to Cottonwood Fire Inspector/EMT Brandon Wacker, Mayor Diane Joens and Fire Chief Mike Casson during the Governor’s Rural Development Conference. Wacker received the recognition for organizing and implementing a community program educating against teenage drunk driving. The program was entitled Every 15 Minutes. His project won recognition for youth leadership development.

The Cottonwood Fire Department and its partners won the Governor’s Excellence in Rural Development Award for their teen drunk driving prevention program entitled Every 15 Minutes. Fire Inspector/EMT Brandon Wacker and Fire Chief Mike Casson joined Mayor Diane Joens—who had submitted the application—in Oro Valley to accept the youth leadership development award on Aug. 17.  

Coordinated and presented by Fire Inspector Wacker, the Every 15 Minutes Program was designed to dramatically impress upon teenagers the dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol. Teens were challenged to think about drinking, personal safety and the responsibility of making mature decisions. The program offered real-life experience without the real-life risks.

“The impact this event had on the entire student body of Mingus Union High School was clearly evident by the students’ attentiveness and behavior during the programs,” Wacker said.

Chief Casson added, “Launched two days prior to prom and three weeks prior to graduation, we believe this production reduced teenage drunk driving during these celebration nights. Reports from local and county law enforcement agencies across the Verde Valley indicated there were no teenage alcohol-related traffic stops made on either night.” 

On day one of the program, sponsored in April just before the prom and graduation, the Grim Reaper and a public safety representative entered a classroom at Mingus Union High School every 15 minutes. They read a student’s obituary explaining the circumstances of the classmate’s demise, as well as the contributions the student had made to the school and community. Shortly thereafter, the student returned to class as the “living dead,” complete with white face make-up, a coroner’s tag and a black T-shirt. These “victims/living dead” did not speak or interact with other students for the remainder of the school day.   

Prior to lunch, a simulated traffic collision was conducted at the football stadium with the entire student body present. The two vehicle head-on crash involved eight injured student participants (moulaged to look the part). These students experienced first-hand the sensations of being involved in a tragic, alcohol-related collision. Six students received non-life threatening injuries and self-extricated from the vehicles. Fire and ambulance paramedics treated them on scene and transported them to the hospital. Two students with life threatening injuries were entrapped in one of the crashed vehicles and had to be extricated by firefighter/paramedics using the “Jaws of Life.” One of the students went into cardiac arrest and resuscitation efforts by the firefighter/paramedics on the scene were unsuccessful. She was pronounced dead-on-the-scene and the coroner was called in to remove the body. Her parents were called to the scene and witnessed the resuscitation efforts and the coroner body removal.  

The second entrapped student was loaded on a medical helicopter and died-in-transport to a Level 1 Trauma Center in Phoenix. Her parents were called to the scene and witnessed her extrication and departure on the medical helicopter.  

Police later met the parents at her home and notified them she did not survive the flight to Phoenix. Police officers investigated and arrested the student drunk driver and hauled him off to jail to be booked on what turned out to be charges of drunk driving and two counts of manslaughter. His parents were also on scene to witness his arrest. Throughout this whole event, the entire student body witnessed and felt the full disturbing impact on what occurred.   

At the end of the day, the students who participated in the staged accident were transported to a local hotel for an overnight student retreat. This retreat simulated the separation from friends and family. There was no contact, no cell phones and complete isolation until the assembly the next day. The eight students wrote letters to their parents sharing their feelings about the event and sharing the things “I never had the chance to tell you.” Parents were also asked to write similar letters to their children. Letters of both students and parents were shared when junior and seniors were all reunited at the school assembly the next morning for the mock trial and funeral.  

The second day began with the sentencing phase of the drunk driver by way of a trial process. He was brought into the “courtroom” in an orange jail suit, bound by leg shackles and handcuffs. This followed a simulated trial whereby the defendant had been found guilty of vehicular manslaughter. The mock sentencing was conducted by local legal professionals, including a local defense attorney, the City of Cottonwood prosecuting attorney and a local judge. 

Immediately following, the mock funeral began with a brief video honoring the young lives of the deceased victims. Pictures of the deceased girls stood next to the closed coffins in the center of the auditorium stage. A local minister gave the eulogy, followed by the reading of the letters by the deceased and their parents. 

Wacker said, “The program ended with a powerful speaker who lost her son as a passenger in a drunk driving accident in Cottonwood four years ago. She shared her experience and truly brought a local reality to the potentially dangerous consequences of drinking and driving.” 

Wacker expressed his appreciation to the many community organizations and individuals who contributed to the program’s success including Mingus Union High Schools’ administrators, staff, students and parents of the victims and “living dead.”  

Also assisting were Fire Inspector-Firefighter Sean Chartier of the Sedona Fire District and Cottonwood Fire Chief Mike Casson, Cottonwood Best Western Inn, Vinnie’s Pizzeria, Yavapai Broadcasting, Verde Independent, City Attorney Johnny Guthrie, attorney Scott Miskiel, Judge Michael Bluff, Westcott Funeral Home, Guardian Air Medical Transport, Verde Valley Ambulance Company, 911 Emergency Dispatch Center, Verde Valley and Sedona Fire Districts, Mingus Union High School and Cottonwood Fire and Police Departments.  

Mayor Joens invited community members to attend the Cottonwood City Council meeting on Sept. 18 to watch Fire Inspector Wacker present the plaque to the City Council and the community. 

http://www.ci.cottonwood.az.us/FD/Whats%20New.html More Information (leaving this Web site)